Dialog: Make Movie

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Dialog: Make Movie

Make Movie

Background:

Commercial video-recording software may not record each step in a machine-cycle, as the model cycles in MechDesigner.

Make-Movie solves these problems.

About Make Movie

Use Make Movie to record :

•a movie as a GIF file-type.

OR

•a sequence of images as PNG, JPG, or BMP file-types.

The file-name of each image is appended with a number.

Also: You can take a Single Snap-Shot of the model at its active Machine Angle.

How to open the Make-Movie dialog

MD-Icon-MakeMovie

1.Click File toolbar > Make Movie

OR

1.Click File menu > Movie

The Make-Movie dialog is now open

Make-Movie dialog

Make-Movie dialog

Make-Movie dialog

Top-Tip - Before you open the dialog, do ALT+H to move the Master Machine Angle to zero(0).
tog_minusFrame Size and Position 
MD-Dialog-MakeMovie-FrameSizePosition

You should see a rectangle in the Graphic-Area. This is the Frame that you record. Usually, edit the size and position of the Frame.

1.Use the Pre-set Frame Size...drop-down list-box to select a typical frame size.

OR

1.Edit Width and Height to the frame.

2.Edit the Left and Top of the frame.

tog_minusFile-name and File-type 
MD-Dialog-MakeMovie-FilenameFiletype

1.Click the File-name and file-type... buttonRed-14-3 (at the bottom of this separator)

In the Windows® Save as dialog:

a.Browse to a File-path and enter a File-name (see Top-Tip, below)

b.Use the Save as type list-box to select a file-type.

Note: different file-types have different results - see File-Types below

c.Click the Save button

The File-path and File-name show in the boxes.Red-14-1Red-14-2

Top-Tip: Do not enter a file-name that ends with a number.

FILE-TYPES

GIF file-type.

To make a movie with the GIF file-type.

GIF files can be large when the frame-size is large.

PNG, JPG, JPEG, BMP file-types.

To save one image for each frame - see Number-of-Frames

We append for you 001, 002, 003, ... to the name of each image. For example, Hinge-A000.png, Hinge-A001.png, Hinge-A002.png, ... "Hinge-A"&"Number-of-Frames". The numbers help you and other software sort the images.

To compile PNG images as a movie, I use Avidemux 2.6 - a free tool you can download from the internet. My lawyer tells me I cannot recommend it.

In Avidemux 2.6:

1.Open the first image in the sequence of images - for example, Hinge-A000.png

Open the first image only. Avidemux2.6 automatically imports the other images in the numbered sequence.

2.Save the movie with the MP4 movie format.

Save the Movie file with the same frame-size as the recorded images.

MP4, with the x264 codec, is the recommended format for YouTube®.

tog_minusMake Movie... 
MD-Dialog-Movie-MakeMove

Number-of-Frames

1.Edit the Number-of-Frames box (Default = 30 Frames, Minimum=5 ; Maximum=10000)

2.Edit the Start Angle ( Default = 0 ;  Minimum > 0, Maximum ≤ Machine End-Angle )

3.Edit the End Angle ( Default = 360 ; 720 ≥ Maximum > Minimum)

4.Select

oInclude Last Frame , or

oExclude Last Frame

Experiment! View the movie in your Video Player to see if there is a stutter at the end of the movie.

Make Movie... button

5.Click the button

When you click the button, the model moves the model to the Start-Angle and compiles the movie (GIF file-type) or save the images (PNG, JPG, BMP file-types)

Please wait as the file(s) are saved to your PC.

OR

Single Shot... button

5. Click the button

When you click the button, you will save a Single Snapshot of the model at its active Master-Machine Angle.